Rees-mogg urges May to take tough line with Brussels

Prime Minister Theresa May must take a tougher line with Brussels after making “errors” in her Brexit negotiation strategy, Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-mogg has urged.

Mr Rees-mogg – who has been tipped as a potential future Conservative leader – insisted there was “no menace in me at all” over his actions.

But he claimed the government had proposed “overcomplicated” solutions to the customs problem and must be prepared to tell Brussels it will walk away without paying the almost £40 billion Brexit divorce bill – potentially leaving the bloc in the red.

On BBC1’S Andrew Marr Show, Mr Rees-mogg said Mrs May had made a mistake over her approach to the Irish border issue, one of the most contentious aspects of the negotiations, by ruling out the prospect of unilaterally keeping an open frontier after Brexit.

Mr Rees-mogg said: “The Prime Minister said in her Mansion House speech that she wasn’t going to do this, I think that is a mistake.

“Ithinkitistheobviousnegotiating position to have. Bear in mind the Irish economy is heavily dependent on its trade with the United Kingdom, it is overwhelmingly in the interests of the Republic of Ireland to maintain an open border with the United Kingdom.

“I think, if you are going into a negotiation, you should use your strongest cards and just to tear one of them up and set hares running on other issues is, I think, an error.”

He said the government’s plans for a “backstop” which would see the whole UK potentially tied to European Union rules in order to avoid a hard border – if no other way of solving the issue is possible – was “a real problem” and could leave the UK a “vassal state for an indeterminate period”.

Asked about his own ambitions, Mr Rees-mogg insisted he believed Mrs May – “the most impressive and dutiful leader this country has had” – was “crucial to the Brexit project”.

“Of course I wouldn’t challenge Theresa May, that’s a ridiculous idea,” he said.